Good afternoon. This is the Chorus Call operator. Welcome to the nine months of 2023 financial results presentation of the Hera Group. All participants are in listen only mode. Following the initial presentation, there will be a Q&A session. In order to receive assistance during the conference call, press star followed by zero. Now I would like to give the floor to Mr. Tomaso Tommasi di Vignano, Hera Group Executive Chairman. You have the floor, Mr. Tommasi.
Good afternoon. Here we are. We have just come out of the board meeting. Here with me, we have some new faces. We have the new CEO and also the new CFO of the Hera Group, Mr. Vai. You have already met him in the past. Mr. Hansen is with us as well, and we know him. We have known him for quite a few years now. We are here to report to you the figures for the first turbulent nine months of the year. As you will see in a minute, we are quite happy with these results. You will find this data in the press release, which you have already received. As you know, this period of time was kind of complex, and some of the events that have occurred are pretty new to us.
We know that raw materials went through the roof in terms of prices, and they also entailed some difficulties in terms of management. On top of that, I would like to say that straightforwardly, we were expecting some sort of clarity at European level. As you know, there has been no final agreement at EU level. This on and off situation of course may hamper then the good results which we managed to secure in the first nine months of the year. Gas and energy prices went down. We are of course have to monitor the European situation, and we do really hope that a final decision will soon be taken by European governments, and to see some sort of unity. That's the real only question mark that we have on our radar. All the other items of course have already been directly explored.
There's been uncertainty as regards gas price and electricity prices. We have experienced the highest peaks in the third quarter and have reached unprecedented levels. This level of volatility continues to be kind of sensitive and, over the last month, of course, if we have a look at the trends in September, we have seen that the situation has improved. This has to be said. Again, we would like of course to see a final agreement and not be waiting for Godot forever. These prices have of course fueled inflation as it is often the case. As a result of that, if you have a look at our slides, you will see that the inflation rate has reached levels which have not been met in the past for many years. That's a pretty complex scenario. This uncertainty has again calmed down over the last month.
We would like, again, to provide some more information to point out again the soundness of the company in fencing off the volatility of the first nine months of the year. The overall context has of course had an influence on the accounts of our nine months. If you go to page two of our document, you will see that most of the negative impacts were offset. If you have a look at the profit and loss account, and this is, in our view, the most important aspect to be taken into consideration, points to the fact that we managed to fence off the negative impact. Our group has shown great resilience and has managed to meet the expectations given the current situation.
If you have a look at the turnover, you will see that it has gone up by 123%, exceeding the threshold of EUR 14 billion. Of course, we're not boasting about it because you know that behind all that you have to take into consideration all the management activities that have been put in place, and you also need to take into consideration all the commodity price dynamics. The EBITDA stood as at 3rd of September at EUR 875 million. Over a period of nine months, this will mark a EUR 20 million increase, up 2%.
This is absolutely in line with the results of the first nine months of 2023 on a like-for-like basis, for the first nine months, but also with the first quarter and with the first six months of 2021. As regards the net profit after minorities, if we compare it with the same figure, the same period last year, this shows a slight decrease. This was mainly affected by higher depreciation, EUR 15 million, and amortization, and bad debt amounting to EUR 19 million. Those aspects are related to the current scenario worldwide. Both data, depreciation and amortization, and bad debt are linked to the increase in commodity prices during the financial year. The solidity of customers indicators remained more or less intact, thanks to a whole series of activities that we carried out.
We have reduced as much as possible the negative influence of the current dynamics on our customers. As a result of that, again, as I said, customers indicators remained more or less intact. The level of compliance with payment times is still good. As I said, we have really been doing our utmost in order to support our customers. We have introduced installments. Our data are absolutely satisfactory, because they just mirror the very good habits of our customers, and we're very proud of that. If you go to page three, you will see how things evolved in terms of investments. Net of the retained investments went up to EUR 446 million, up 15% vis-à-vis the first nine months of the year 2022. 2021, sorry.
Again, as part of this result, you have to take into consideration the difficulties we incurred into. Some of our suppliers, companies incurred into difficulties, and so it was not possible to fully execute our investment projects. Again, that's just a minor gap. We also need to take into consideration that over this nine-month period, we had to carry out large maintenance operations on our two plants in Trieste and in Ravenna. One of the two plants has already resumed operations after the refurbishment, and the second plant is about to complete its renovation scheme and will soon be operating again. We had some additional extraordinary investments hovering around EUR 1 billion, involving the following aspects. First of all, we wanted to ensure the availability of gas for our customers and for our internal operations.
We thus allocated our gas storage filling activity, which started off at the beginning of the last six-month period. We allocated approximately EUR 878 million, corresponding to about 700 million cubic meters up, and this is something I want to stress, up 40% if compared with the same nine months of the year 2021. Here again, you understand how quickly we reacted to the situation, and you understand how big the financial effort was. We would also like to point out that this gas storage filling activity will have a short payback time because, again, the current heating season is, of course, not very wintery. It doesn't look like winter, so it's not very cold yet. Our gas reserves have not been used very much just as yet.
Again, the gas reserves are there, so the availability of gas is there. Once the winter starts, again, we will secure the supply of gas. That's again a guarantee for our customers. At the same time, it is also the right stepping stone for us to optimize normal trading activities, which, as you know, is something we have always been focusing on as part of our activities. That's a very significant investment. It's risk-free as an investment, and it has absolutely been fully hedged. There again, it has been fully hedged against the risk of price fluctuations. Again, we are protected against any price fluctuations. Second aspect that I would like to flag out is the following. We also continued our M&A driven growth, so we did not stop in terms of M&A. Here there are two important aspects.
We invested up to EUR 64 million. These are minor M&A operations which we carried out in different segment areas of the company. I will come back to that and speak about it in greater detail in a minute. Our two-pronged approach for growth, of course, is always valid. Our M&A driven growth is always part of our growth strategy. It's one of the two main pillars for growth. We are completely in line with our industrial plan, and we are operating in a very coherent way from a strategic point of view. The debt/EBITDA ratio settled at 3.62 times, which is a figure that is absolutely manageable. Of course, we have to take into consideration that for us, 3 times is the benchmark.
Unless there are very extraordinary situations, we usually stay under 3 times. If we just go over 3 times, that will not entail any financial risk because as I said earlier on, this is just a temporary situation until gas reserves are used up. Then this value will then go down the 3 times threshold. If we considered or excluded the stored gas, then this would result in a debt EBITDA ratio of 2.9 times, which is absolutely in line with the history of our group. I think this is very important because again, we reacted to the situation. We proved to be able to react very in a very flexible way to these emerging opportunities. We're really very satisfied with that. Overall, I think that there is no risk exposure.
Again, we've been providing data as transparently as possible, as we usually do in a very specific and unusual situation. If we now go to page four, you will see that this is about the EBITDA. As I have already mentioned, the EBITDA is up EUR 20.4 million. This is most commendable, considering that it also offsets the negative effect of the review of the work of ARERA, of the Italian Authority, which had an impact of approximately -EUR 16.5 million in the period we are currently analyzing today. There again, we reacted to the situation, and we managed to secure a very good result.
Of course, it's not the best result ever, but it's still a very positive result, and it is absolutely consistent with the trends and the results of the first quarters of the year 2022. Our engine has been revving up and has been complying with the strategic objectives we have set ourselves. How does this result came about? First of all, we had the first contribution, as you can see in the graph, + EUR 25.2 million emerging from circular economy models. There again, we had several contributions. First of all, we had some energy optimization schemes for condominiums, and this proved to be very successful in some of the territories where we have managed to deploy these activities very successfully. Phase borders contributed to that.
We had the EUR 5.3 million relating to further growth of commercial offerings or value-added services in energy, in our energy business area. Last but not least, we had an EUR 8.4 million contribution from our subsidiary, Aliplast, which, as you know, is part and parcel of our waste business area. That was the first contribution that allowed us to improve our EBITDA. We had a further contribution coming from organic growth, and this brought about EUR 5.7 million, of which EUR 5.7 million we had again higher number of energy customers that went up to 51,000 units, and we had the market waste increase by 106,000 tons. We had further cost savings and higher premiums in the water business area.
Again, we were very satisfied with that because we've been working very hard from the management and investment point of view. We also had a positive effect of some new connections. All this led to the final result of this nine-month period. Last but not least, as I have mentioned earlier on, we also decided to go for a small merger and acquisition operation which top growth with a EUR 6 million contribution, both in the gas and in the energy business areas where we performed some additional M&A operations. This leads me now to the illustration of the first business area, and our CEO will then shed some more light on that once I have introduced the waste treatment business area. You will find some more detailed information on page five.
In this business area, we had an EBITDA increase by 17.8%, and this is already quite a strong fact, and this accounts for EUR 29.8 million in terms of value. This result was achieved without the contribution of the two waste-to-energy plants which are currently being revamped. It's currently just one plant that still has to resume its operation. The first one has already resumed operations. As part of the EBITDA growth, you also need to consider the energy production within our treatment plant, because this gave a contribution amounting to EUR 23.2 million. We have already talked about Aliplast, let me just remind you of the fact that the very valuable contribution of Aliplast contributed with a positive result by about EUR 8.4 million.
To complete this picture, we have an organic growth by EUR 4 million, considering the change in scope due to two M&A operations. We will come back to that in a minute. In the waste treatment segment, we had an acquisition in the region of Marche, which increased the EBITDA by EUR 2 million. This is what we've done. These are the results that we have managed to secure. Again, if you consider the overall situation, the overall context and scenario, then you will see that our financial results have proven that we are absolutely able to consistently deliver. I would also like to flag out that we didn't stop in terms of M&A with some small operations.
We went on, as you have certainly read in the newspapers yesterday, we secured a very significant M&A operation, which will be included in the first quarter of 2023. This is a very important operation for us. It's a company operating in the environmental remediation activities. In our view, this operation was carefully pondered, and it will be concluded at the beginning of next year, so at the beginning of 2023, and it will certainly be a win-win situation because we will pool our energies, we will create synergies in terms of common experience, because ACR is the first operator in Italy in terms of experience and in terms of size when it comes to environmental remediation. ACR di Reggiani Albertino S.p.A. is an historical company.
They have very large customer portfolios, especially when it comes to companies operating in the oil segment. ACR was already a leading company in its own segment. Our company has already been operating in the segment for a few years with very important contracts. As of January 1st, we will be creating major synergies, and that, of course, will already be a new financial year. I guess that this will bode very well for us for the next year because we are again pooling energies with an operator on the market, which has a very large customer base and has very important energy and industrial customers. Now, I would like to give the floor to Hera's Chief Operating Officer, Mr. Orazio Iacono, who is going to shed some light on the trends in all the other business areas. Please.
Thank you. Good evening, everybody, and I will now continue with analysis of the results by business area. I will now turn to energy, which you find on page six. The EBITDA has reached EUR 257 million, a slight increase by about EUR 2 million compared to the first nine months of 2021. You will see that this figure mirrors the leveling off of the results obtained on the dispatching services provided to Terna, with a negative effect of about EUR 10.7 million on the EBITDA that we already seen in the half year report.
The results relating to commercial activities, on the other hand, showed solid margins, and we only posted a slight loss, about EUR 1.6 million, despite, let me point this out, major market turbulences. The result, in fact, came about in a context of strong market imbalance, especially in the third quarter, which caused higher imbalance charges for the commodity sales activities. However, the higher costs were almost fully offset by both the expansion in markets of last resort for gas and by the higher margins attained with energy efficiency improvement and energy saving services, which are being increasingly appreciated by our customers given the current context. I would also like to flag out one more aspect.
In the third quarter as well, Hera continued assisting its customers by offering installment payments on bills in three installments, and it expects to collect most of the installments outstanding to date by the end of the year already. To face the near future, we can count on some favorable events and elements as our chairman has already pointed out. As explained, we have put together an important gas reserve, and we're really very proud of this because we can now ensure supply to our customers, and this represents an alternative to the so-called spot market for optimizing activities aimed at shaping customers' demand. Second aspect, energy prices show a decreasing trend as a result of a mild weather at the beginning of the heating season. We have the albeit slow progress of negotiations for a European agreement on energy prices.
Third aspect, Hera's customers continue to show high standards compared to the Italian market in terms of average payment time, levels of loyalty, and thus of unpaid ratio as well. Before moving on, I would like to mention, as you can see in this graph, that there is an accounting difference emerging from the evaluation of the gas inventory, which was also mentioned several times in the half-yearly report. This difference has increased, of course, as a result of the additional volumes of gas which we have stored this past quarter. I would like to remind you that this difference is temporary and will decrease with a gradual delivery of more than 40% of the gas to customers already by the end of the year, and then the remainder by the end of the heating season in April 2023.
Now I would like to move on with the networks business areas. The EBITDA increased by 3.2% if compared to the first nine months of 2021, coming to about EUR 348 million. This is a particularly positive result. As previously mentioned, this offsets a cut in the WACC, which has a negative influence by EUR 16.5 million. As you can see, we have then received premiums contributing to EUR 24.1 million. EUR 22.8 million out of them are related to water assets. Hera has been investing heavily in this segment for years. This investment policy has paid off and has allowed us to have more innovation, more resilience, more operating performance levels, and this is helping us, and this is propping up premiums.
The technical quality of the gas distribution networks also received a premium, EUR 1.3 million. An important growth driver is in this case, savings and district heating. This contributed to EUR 300 million. Again, there is continuous search for efficiencies and cost savings in all regulated activities, which we never stopped pursuing. This is really paying off. Regulated activities have fully recovered and offset the WACC cut and offset higher costs generated by inflation, which settled at around 9%. The network business area, despite all the difficulties that we had to face in terms of supply chains, managed to secure as many as EUR 252.7 million investment, which is approximately an increase by 14% over the previous year.
Investments on 2022 are an important strategic lever to ensure revenues, to ensure quality, to provide continuity of service, to increase efficiency, resilience, and the flexibility of networks. Hera is continuing with its process of digitization of its networks, of its operating processes by introducing artificial intelligence, digital algorithms in order to guarantee predictive maintenance. We have smart metering systems, digital meters for accurate metering of consumption for the benefit of customers and continuous network efficiency. Last but not least, we have just launched an experiment concerning the use of hydrogen in a plant in Castelfranco Emilia. This experiment, again, was a first, the one of a kind here in Italy, about the use of hydrogen in a gas distribution network. This will help us to test the functionality of green gas. Now I would like to turn to page eight.
We were faced with a very complex scenario, an unexpected scenario, which has plunged many operators into crisis. Here we have managed, through constant teamwork, to work out new solutions and solutions that are far away from the standards we were used to in the past. we had to cater for new needs, and we have managed to keep the helm straight. We have ironed out, financial, organizational, and operational measures which we deemed necessary to, maintain an adequate type of setup now for the new context we are currently operating in. The resilience of the results, therefore, was secured once again in this quarterly report in each business area, relying on the hedging, between business areas feature, to neutralize all the negative impacts of the unprecedented economic situation we are faced with.
Results confirmed the growth of all the projects which we have put in our industrial plan. The investments which we have currently executed are proof of that. Energy's commercial activity, we confirmed the effective protection of margins from the risks of fluctuating energy prices. This area is substantially affected by the contraction of ancillary services compared to the exceptional performance of the same period last year. In the energy business area, we can now count on a strategic gas reserve to continue and look into the future safely and soundly until the end of the heating season. Then we have the networks business area, which have generated solid growth. Investments were continuously made in order to ensure the level of quality that propped up the results and that secured the premiums I have mentioned.
The waste management business area, which continued to generate strong growth in volumes and margins, propping up its market leadership. On some activities, it has been drawing benefits from the dynamics of energy prices that have more than offset the higher costs and negative impacts suffered in other business areas. Last but not least, the financial aspect was also carefully scrutinized. Last summer, we really did a very intense work, but we are really very happy with that. We've been working very hard on this. Again, we have managed to have a conservative risk profile as usual, while also preserving good financial flexibility for the future. Now, I would like to give the floor to Mr. Massimo Vai. Thank you.
Good afternoon to everyone from my side as well. Here you see the cash flow generation of the first month of this financial year. We will start with the operating cash flow. There's been an increase of the EUR 703 million. This managed to allow that, so to increase the good results. As the executive chairman and as the CEO have already pointed out, there are again two very important aspects contributing to this. If we consider the values which we reported in June, this is a marked increase, and it also explains the increase in the debt level vis-à-vis the value which we introduced in June. The net working capital, I will be focusing on it in a minute, will be absorbing the cash flow of EUR 300 million.
The gas storage activities had a cash absorption of EUR 820 million, which is an increase vis-à-vis the value which we pointed out in June. Investments also went up, as our Executive Chairman and as our CEO have already pointed out. We carried out additional M&A operations, excluding the ACR M&A operation, which will be posted in the 2023 financial year. The cash outlay in this case accounts to EUR 190 million. Dividends had already been paid out. Again, values have been confirmed. All this generates a net financial position which is hovering around EUR 400 billion, which is a marked increase vis-à-vis the value in June. If we now have a look at the next slide, you will see some more details concerning the net working capital.
If you isolate and exclude the gas storage assets, you will see the effect of electricity prices, which went through the roof in June and in July. As you can see on the graph on the left-hand side, the season variation is playing a role in the first quarter and less so in the second quarter. Then the energy price increase played out as well. This is why the value at the end of September was slightly higher. In the fourth quarter of the year, we should see a favorable trend, which in our forecasts will translate into downsizing of the net working capital. On the right-hand side, you see reference made to the installment. We said that payment performance of our customers is good.
Based on our predictive payment scheme, we don't foresee any significant negative impact in terms of debt collection, performance levels. This applies to payments, and this applies to the percentage of possible losses, which is something that we use in order to consider in calculating the unpaid loss ratio. Installments, as you can see on the right-hand side, have reached quite high level as in 2020, when we did something similar in order to provide our customers with the opportunity to divide the payments over a longer period of time, thus bolstering the loyalty of our customers, who decided to remain with us as their suppliers. In terms of the net working capital, again, you see the effects of the gas storage, which as you know, was a strategic move, and this is just a temporary situation.
The net working capital, which, is unfavorable right now due to the high energy, electricity prices, which we experienced over the last few months. Now I'd like to turn the floor back to our Executive Chairman for some concluding remarks.
Thank you. Well, I think you have already understood how difficult it was to come to the current situation. I hope that you have understood how sound the situation is that we have generated. We have managed to come up with very successful reactions to a very challenging scenario. We have been providing continuity even in the most difficult situation. We have tried to do our best in order to prop up our stakeholders. We wanted our workforce to be supported.
We wanted the segment of tenders to again provide us with the right answers in spite of the very uncertain situations. Again, we're really very happy with the results. Now we have, of course, to keep the helm steady. We have managed to counter this very heavy situation. This is proof of our resilience, but we should not now underestimate the risks that could come our way, even if all these risks looked to be tamed right now. I'm referring, for instance, to the consolidation of regulations and standards. Of course, it's not easy to live together with changing regulations because our company is, of course, living up to all its commitments.
At the same time, we are doing our utmost to be able to come up with a new industrial plan at the beginning of February for the next five financial years. We're taking up the challenge, and again, it's like a bet to some extent for us, because we're really very sure about what we are doing. Of course, we need to make sure that the overall picture becomes clearer and clearer month after month, so that we don't have to postpone any decisions. I think that that's the best confirmation that we can provide. Again, in February, our major industrial plan will be launched. We are sure about that.
The best proof of that is that the first nine months of this year have already confirmed that this year is an extraordinary year, is out of the common. Over the last 20 years, we have never witnessed so many difficulties. Of course, all this happened after the COVID-19 pandemic. There again, you can rest assured that we have reacted very strongly, that we have proven our resilience for the entire Hera Group, and that we have undertaken great efforts to counter all the possible negative effects.
This is the Chorus Call operator. The Q&A session will start now. Whoever wants to take the floor and ask a question, please press star followed by one on your phone. In order to leave the waiting list, press star followed by one. Use your receivers and speak slowly and clearly to ensure that translation can be ensured. Press star followed by one if you want to ask a question. The first question is by Javier Suarez of Mediobanca.
Yes. Good evening, everybody, and thank you for this presentation. I have a few questions. The first one is not about risks, but more about opportunity. Given the current gas market situation, so the gas supply market mainly today, do you think that there could be opportunities for Hera being a very important operator? If this is the case, when could this opportunity materialize? Second question concerning the supply business side. It is very interesting to see the integrated margin EBITDA resilience. How has the energy crisis changed? How have things evolved?
If anything has changed, what do we need to expect in terms of commercial policies? Have you performed any adjustments in this regard? Third question, risks and gas situation. You have increased your gas reserves significantly. I just wanted to understand that there are no risks in terms of the purchase of natural gas. You have the underlying working capital. It has already been pointed out that this hovers around EUR 300 million. How much of this EUR 300 million will be reabsorbed by year end? One last question. Can we say that the debt level should hover around the 3.2 times or 3.5 times, and this slight increase that you have pointed to is due to the beneficial effects of the post minority's results. Can this be seen as, again, a change? Thank you.
First of all, Javier, we will start with the first question. This refers to the last resort market. Last resort markets are complex markets, but these complexities, if correctly handled, can generate interesting margins. The Hera Group has a very good track record, and it has consolidated experience in this market. Incremental scraps, as we happen to have secured, can represent an opportunity for economic growth. For sure, you need to be flexible from a financial point of view, and this has to go hand in hand with a very good management operation of credit. You have to improve the end-to-end process of customer management. We have already taken this direction, so we are already taking care of both aspects.
As regards your second question, in terms of commercial activities, you have certainly had a look at the figures, and especially when it comes to electricity, at least when it comes to the sale of electric energy, there's been an impact and a change vis-à-vis last year. A negative impact, and this can be attributed to imbalance costs in imbalance situations. We had high volatility in terms of prices, and this was due to the fact there was a change in our customers' usage profiles. This is why we had an imbalanced situation. We had therefore to carry out some operations in a very difficult situation.
In the electricity segment, supply is not only happening on a daily basis, but also on an hourly basis. All this was luckily enough offset by the gas business area, where on the other hand, we had positive contribution. We had great resilience when it comes to our traditional customer base. As I said, we had an enlargement of our scope for free to full services for the two-year period 2022, 2023. Margins for gas were the negative impacts on the margins for gas were lower because here again, we operate on a daily basis and not on an hourly basis. We will be growing very well when it comes to value-added services, +EUR 5 million. This involves boilers, for instance, AC systems, photovoltaic panels.
This is a business that is thriving, and we will be focusing more and more on these new needs that are arising, that have been arising for a while now. In terms of gas storage, in terms of the strategic gas reserve, well, that's fully hedged. We can only confirm that, because again, we have fully hedged that in full compliance with risk management policy, and this is all recoverable within the period within which our gas reserves will go down. As regards the net working capital, there again, let me provide a broader perspective, which also shines some light on the future for our net financial position.
Energy, gas price trends, as we have witnessed them in the last weeks, going hand in hand with good payment collection terms and the progressive consumption of our gas reserves during the winter period. Well, given all this, we can say that the net financial position is currently reaching a peak, and this peak will then go down over the next few months. The weather conditions will have an impact on that, and the energy prices will have an impact on that. Also the reduction of volumes on the last resort markets will have an impact. We know how to deal with that. We have a successful track record in this regard.
Let me say once again that the objective is to go back as quickly as possible to what we have always considered our safe haven, which is three times in terms of net financial position and EBITDA, so that we can preserve our financial flexibility, which we have always used in the past to perform M&A operations. As our Executive Chairman was pointing out. Yes, that's correct. 50% of the stored gas will again be used. Our reserves will go down by about 50%. This will decrease the net working capital, not just because of all that I have already pointed out, but because again, gas reserves will also go down. We're looking into the future with a very sound hand.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
The next question is by Emanuele Oggioni of Kepler Cheuvreux. Thank you very much, and good evening, everybody. Thank you for this presentation. I have a couple of questions. The first question concerns this 40% reduction, which you mentioned earlier on. If I have correctly understood, this refers to the EUR 820 million impact on gas storage. This has due to the price effect, which is now going down in the fourth quarter, and this is also due to the beginning last of the heating season, because in October, again, gas sales went down vis-à-vis the past. November and December, well, there we should see a pickup of gas consumption because temperatures will go down as it usually the case in the last two months of the year.
This 40% refers to the EUR 870 million. If that is the case, what do we need to expect in terms of partial reabsorption of the EUR 152 million difference between the IFRS reported EBITDA and the adjusted EBITDA from now down to year-end because of the gas accounting difference and because of the gas price trends? I have another question concerning the acquisition of ACR di Reggiani Albertino. You have already told us that is EUR 17 million in 2021. Can you give us a rough idea about industrial synergies? How much do you think the contribution will be in 2023 since I've heard that consolidation will take place as of January 1st, 2023?
Another question. If you could just tell us something more about the multiples at which this acquisition took place, since you have acquired 60% and not 100% of the company. One last question concerning the debt level. If you could just provide us with some additional information about the cost of debt in the first nine months of 2.6% at the end of first quarter. And for all companies, be they utility companies or not, the cost of debt is marginal, and it will be again much higher for new financing schemes. If you could just give us a rough idea what the marginal cost of debt for new financing operations and any difference between the past and the future, so that we have some reference in terms of costs for the year 2023. Thank you.
Yes, thank you. As regards the first item. Yes. In December we often use up to 40% of our gas reserves, and maybe this year will be a bit more than 40%. We have already started using our gas reserves, we've just started as we speak. This EUR 152 million that you mentioned concerning the gas storage, this is the peak value as at September 30th, and it went up because of the higher volumes stored.
By year-end, it will go down because as I said, our gas reserves will go down by 40%-45%. As regards debt, then our chairman will take the floor concerning the ACR. We can confirm that the cost of debt right now is standing at 2.6%. We are absolutely in line with the values as of June thirtieth. It will certainly go up because of again, the operations that are being carried out and because of the net debt. We will keep an eye on it, as we have always done in the past and as we have already done in the first half of this year. I would like to give the floor to our executive chairman.
Yes, well, the news broke out yesterday. It will be concluded in January. The decision went through the board of directors meetings, and again, it was approved and again, the information was given today. After the closure of the operation, we will own 60% of the company, and this 60% has been evaluated at EUR 6 million. The value hovers around EUR 6 million. This is what we can tell for the time being. Of course, we will come back to that in greater detail once we illustrate the results of the first quarter of 2023, because again, this will come into play after the first quarter of 2023. We are very happy about this M&A operation, which was announced at Ecomondo yesterday, and it was warmly welcomed.
A lot of interest, a lot of attention was raised for two good reasons. First of all, the customers that we have acquired through our waste management channels, in particular in the oil segment, are part and parcel of the customers portfolio of ACR. Basically, we are creating the synergies and these companies of course been providing very sound results in the past. Again, pooling synergies will certainly create synergies. We are more than sure about that. At the end of January, once we come out with our new industrial plan, then we will be able to provide a fully-fledged scenario about future results. Thank you very much.
I'd like to remind you that if you want to ask a question you can press star followed by one on your keypad. Thank you very much for your attention, and we will see you next time round. Cheers. This is a Chorus Call operator. The conference call has finished. You can now disconnect your mobile phones.